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Suntrition Inc.

Merging leading testing and trusted manufacturing for superior supplements

Written by:

Molly Shaw

Produced by:

James Logan

Since 2001, Suntrition Inc. has been pushing the envelope in nutraceutical product innovation as an advanced manufacturer of oral-dose therapeutics. The company has been named one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada for four years running. Suntrition operates on a contract basis and works with customers to create unique and proprietary evidence-based natural supplements — mainly tablets, capsules and powder formulations – that support health optimization.

Certified by Health Canada as well as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Suntrition has the flexibility to fulfill small to large orders and works to meet the ever-evolving needs of its customers. Based in Tecumseh, Ontario, Suntrition is strategically located near the U.S. border between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit.

As the demand for natural health products grows, Suntrition has welcomed global business and partnerships. “From a manufacturing perspective, we’ve seen significant growth in exports,” shares Grant Bourdeau, founder and chief operating officer of Suntrition. “We’re shipping to global customers in the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and U.S. — making highly efficacious products for these markets.”

As founder of Suntrition, Bourdeau has an unusual background in manufacturing. “My history is with the automotive industry,” he shares. “Before this, I was involved in stamping and welding, but I was very familiar with manufacturing business and have always had an active interest in the health and nutrition industry. I was able to apply my experience in the auto industry to building a lean and efficient operation here.”

Pairing diagnostics with product development

Building on this background, Suntrition began to steadily take off. Suntrition has undergone sizable expansion and has recently merged with BIOMEDCORE, a biotechnology company founded by Dr. Indrajit Sinha with proprietary diagnostics and a similar vision.

“Under a single vision to create innovative therapeutics and diagnostics to enable individualized health optimization, ACEZIA is the new name of the merged entity,” explains Bourdeau. “Suntrition remains as the manufacturing brand name of the company. Our mission is to produce products that are reproducible in an efficacious fashion and linked to strong diagnostics.”

In December 2010, Suntrition relocated its headquarters to a brand new state-of-the-art pharmaceutical-grade facility. Since relocating, the company has gained the prestigious NSF International Good Manufacturing Practices for Sport registration. “We’re one of only a few companies in Canada to hold this title,” says Bourdeau.

The merger with BIOMEDCORE has also given Suntrition more resources to meld science and advanced manufacturing. “We’re currently working on a therapeutic product for a customer in the Philippines, which has a significant amount of human clinical evidence behind it,” says Bourdeau. “We’re applying our technology to maintain the efficacy of the product through the manufacturing process to be able to provide batch-to-batch efficacious products to that market.”

More personalized medicine

Bourdeau says the ability to reproduce efficacious batches is a game changer in the industry. ACEZIA is taking a leading approach to linking products to proprietary diagnostics with its own patented system.

“If I have a health condition, I’m going to take a product based on it being right for me,” he explains. “Maintaining the diagnostic analysis through am interval checkup helps build evidence the product is effective. The diagnostic is allows the end consumers to provide a baseline for the product and show that the therapeutic benefits are actually working.”

From a manufacturing perspective, Bourdeau says what ACEZIA is doing is unique in the industry. “We’re engaged in therapeutics [the supplement side and actual manufacturing of these products] as well as the diagnostics and testing,” he explains. “This is personalized medicine because we’re creating evidence-based therapeutics and using the diagnostics to enhance individualized health optimization.”

Restructuring and reinvesting for the future

Bourdeau says ACEZIA has many opportunities for expansion and continued innovation on the horizon. “We’re expanding into more powder-based products, whether that’s a sports drink or functional foods,” he says. “We haven’t been focused here in the past, but we see serious growth potential and we’re making capital investments into research.”

The company also has plans to add probiotics and fermentation technology to the lineup in the next 12 to 16 months. “We have expansion plans for probiotics and fermentation technology in the works to not only have the manufacturing capability, but also the research behind the health benefits,” adds Bourdeau. “We’re building out isolation suites to do more research in this market.”

Bourdeau adds that ACEZIA is also excited to take part in a major clinical research trial in Europe coming up. “We’re collaborating with a German research institution to do clinical trials in a project concerning lung cancer,” he says. “This is a big opportunity for us and the research institution was interested in us because of our technology and our existing patents.”

With many new opportunities and a lot of organizational restructuring post-merger, Bourdeau says it’s a busy, yet exciting time for ACEZIA. “As we take on new projects, we’re also building the internal team we need,” he says. “We have a new president and I’ve assumed the role of chief operating officer. We now have people with the experience and background in the pharmaceutical world to offer guidance and direction and we’re in a good position after this restructuring.”

New management, intellectual property, products and capabilities are all a reality for ACEZIA, backed by Suntrition Inc., and the company’s mission remains the same: to produce high-quality, effective supplements driven by leading testing and diagnostics.